Alleged neo-Nazi terrorist couple had ‘extensive’ weapons cache at home

An alleged neo-Nazi terrorist couple accused of being members of a banned group kept an “extensive” cache of serrated machetes, crossbows and other weaponry at home, a court has heard.

Adam Thomas, 22, and his partner, Claudia Patatas, 38, also had a greetings card on the sideboard of their living room which featured Ku Klux Klan (KKK) figures and read “May all your Christmases be white”.

In a kitchen drawer, police officers found a pastry-cutter shaped like a Swastika and a photograph showing the couple’s infant son in his crib, next to a cushion bearing the Nazi party symbol.

Birmingham Crown Court has already heard that the couple gave their child the middle name Adolf, which the prosecution alleged was in honour of infamous Nazi leader Hitler.

Why, members of the jury, was there such an extensive degree of weaponry in this particular house?

Thomas and Patatas, both of Waltham Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, are on trial accused of being members of the extremist racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic group National Action, which was banned in December 2016.

Co-defendant Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Crown Hills Rise, Leicester, is also in the dock facing the same membership charge.

Thomas is facing a separate charge of having a terrorist document, The Anarchist Cookbook, which contained bomb-making instructions.

On Thursday, jurors heard that police searches of the couple’s home in January 2018 found two machetes, one with a serrated 18in (46cm) blade, in the first-floor bedroom where their baby son slept.

Underneath the couple’s bed was an axe found in a sheath, Barnaby Jameson QC, prosecuting, added.

Another photo was alleged to show Thomas in camouflage gear and a mask, brandishing the machete at home for the camera.

The court heard details of a makeshift target range in the back garden where old clothing was found with holes in, which the Crown have said match those made by crossbow bolts.Adam Thomas, Claudia Patatas and Daniel Bogunovic are on trial at Birmingham Crown Court (Chris Radburn/PA)

One of two crossbows discovered at the address was also found under the couple’s bed, just a few feet from the baby’s crib.

A Nazi dagger bearing the Swastika on its hilt was also removed from the address, which also contained pendants, flags and clothing emblazoned with the symbols of the Nazi-era SS as well as National Action.

Mr Jameson said: “Why, members of the jury, was there such an extensive degree of weaponry in this particular house and in this case the parental bedroom?

“Why is it these clothes appear to be covered in holes made by crossbow bolts?

“Why was it necessary for anybody in the garden of the address to be firing a crossbow and crossbow bolts into the clothes you’ve seen?”

The search also uncovered a digital copy of The Anarchist Cookbook, version 2000, on a laptop, which contained chapters headed “Making plastic explosive”, “Letter bombs”, and “Molotov cocktails”, among others, the jury heard.

There were also press cuttings in the lounge relating to far-right mass-murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.

On Wednesday, jurors were shown an alleged photo of Thomas cradling his newborn baby, wearing the hooded white robes of the Ku Klux Klan.Alleged neo-Nazi terrorist Claudia Patatas, 38, from Banbury, arriving at court, where she and partner Adam Thomas,22, are on trial accused of being members of far-right extremist group National Action (Aaron Chown/PA)

At Bogunovic’s address, police found a large number of stickers and images relating to National Action, contact details for other group members and, in his bedroom ,a Nazi flag.

Following the group’s ban, the prosecution alleged National Action tried to “shed one skin for another” in order to evade the law and that the three defendants, were part of a successor organisation called the TripleK Mafia.

The Crown’s case is that the group was still National Action in all but name, but merely went through a “re-branding” exercise to evade scrutiny by the authorities.

All three defendants deny wrongdoing and the trial, set to last four weeks, continues.